“For the Power of the Workers Councils”

Source: Bureau of Public Secrets.Translated: by Ken Knabb, slightly modified from the versions in the Situationist International Anthology. No copyright.

In the space of ten days workers have occupied hundreds
of factories, a spontaneous general strike has brought the country to a
standstill, and de facto committees have taken over many state-owned
buildings. This situation – which cannot last but must either extend
itself or disappear (through repression or defeatist negotiations) – is
sweeping aside all the old ideas and confirming all the radical hypotheses
on the return of the revolutionary proletarian movement. The fact that the
whole movement was actually triggered five months ago by a half
dozen revolutionaries of the “Enragé” group reveals even better how
much the objective conditions were already present. The French example is
already having repercussions in other countries, reviving the
internationalism that is inseparable from the revolutions of our century.

The fundamental struggle is now between the mass of workers – who do
not have direct means of expressing themselves – and the leftist political
and labor-union bureaucracies that (even if merely on the basis of the 14%
of the active population that is unionized) control the factory
gates and the right to negotiate in the name of the occupiers. These
bureaucracies are not workers' organizations that have degenerated and
betrayed the workers; they are a mechanism for integrating the workers
into capitalist society. In the present crisis they are the main
protection of this shaken capitalism.

The de Gaulle regime may negotiate – essentially (even if only
indirectly) with the PCF-CGT [French Communist Party and the labor union
it dominates] – for the demobilization of the workers in exchange for some
economic benefits; after which the radical currents would be repressed. Or
the “Left” may come to power and pursue the same policies, though from a
weaker position. Or an armed repression may be attempted. Or, finally, the
workers may take the upper hand by speaking for themselves and becoming
conscious of goals as radical as the forms of struggle they have already
put into practice. Such a process would lead to the formation of workers
councils making decisions democratically at the rank-and-file level,
federating with each other by means of delegates revocable at any moment,
and becoming the sole deliberative and executive power over the entire
country.

How could the continuation of the present situation lead to such a
prospect? Within a few days, perhaps, the necessity of starting certain
sectors of the economy back up again under workers' control could
lay the bases for this new power, a power which everything is already
pushing to burst through the constraints of the unions and parties. The
railroads and printshops would have to be put back into operation for the
needs of the workers' struggle. New de facto authorities would have to
requisition and distribute food. If money became devalued or unavailable
it might have to be replaced by vouchers backed by those new authorities.
It is through such a practical process that the consciousness of
the deepest aspirations of the proletariat can impose itself – the class
consciousness that lays hold on history and brings about the workers'
power over all aspects of their own lives.